FROM THE ARCHIVES:A 10 per cent cut in British tariffs on imports of Danish bacon was a shock to the Irish political system and helped to force a reappraisal of both agricultural policies and protectionism, a message that was underlined in this speech in Dublin by an official of what later became the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The deputy Secretary-General of O.E.E.C., Mr. John Cahan, spoke bluntly to the Irish representatives at yesterday’s economic conference in Dublin, under the auspices of the Irish Council of the European Movement.
“I think you badly needed a jolt,” he said. “Some of you were getting a bit complacent. But the fact that you are now going to lose, probably for ever, your privileged position in the United Kingdom agricultural market is going to give you the added incentive that seems to be lacking – to reorganise and to reorientate your agricultural policies. The Little Free Trade Area [the European Free Trade Association] is a challenge that Ireland badly needed and to which she can respond.”
Referring to the aims of the Common Market (the “six”) and the Little Free Trade Area (the “seven”), he said he did not believe that they could resolve their difficulties without O.E.E.C., and that they must arrive at some sort of political union if the West was to survive. He regretted that Ireland had been “left out in the cold” in the negotiations.
The Irish had been having trouble with the Danes even longer than they had been having trouble with the English, and it was not very comforting, he said, to the Irish to know that the Danish farmer was going to have a larger profit rather than sell more pigs to Britain.
“But I was not terribly taken in by that argument. My feeling is that it is not such a bad thing for Ireland as it may seem to be at first blush: not at all for the reasons advanced, however, but for quite different reasons.”
Mr. Cahan said: “I believe that you have in your land, in your proximity to the British market, advantages that can far outweigh anything the British may give to the Danes . . .
“The Little Free Trade Area is going to hit you also on the industrial side. The ‘Six’ are clearly moving towards free trade in general. The ‘Seven’, I am quite sure, are going to do the same thing. The Scandinavian group are definitely free-trade minded and Ireland is going to find herself whether there is agreement between the ‘Six’ or the ‘Seven’ or not, on the edge of a vast community – which is two communities – that are tending towards free trade.
“You are going to find yourselves being pushed by the pressure of events also to reduce your tariffs on manufactured goods and to reduce the protection you give by tariff to your industries, which will therefore have to raise themselves to full efficiency.
“You are going to have a hard road to the end of the century when I expect we will have free trade.”